Under intense international protest the
Vienna Philharmonic agreed to admit women in 1997. Unfortunately,
in the first ten years after that momentous decision, they hired only one, harpist
Charolotte Balzereit.

Recently
two additional women have completed their tenure in the State Opera
Orchestra and have also been admitted into the Philharmonic. This
means that after 12 years, there are now 7 women in the State Opera Orchestra, and that 3 of
them are tenured into the VPo. The three in the VPo are[2]:

Isabelle
Ballot, first violin

Ursula
Plaichinger, viola

Charlotte
Balzereit, harp

Cellist
Ursula Wex has been in the Staatsoper Orchestra for 6 years but she has
still not been admitted to the VPo. The orchestra is denying her
tenure due to maternity leave.

The
Philharmonic averages 137 positions in total, so the representation of
women twelve years after it opened its doors to them is only 2.1%.[3]

This
slow rate of employment is also found in the Berlin Philharmonic.
It began admitting women in 1983. Twenty-six years later women
represent only 12.5% of the orchestra.[4] By comparison the
National Orchestra of France, the Zurich State Opera Orchestra, and the
New York Philharmonic all have close to 40% women.[5]

On
the positive side, concertmistress Albena
Danailova is doing well in the
Staatsoper. She won her audition in 2008 and began working
with the orchestra in September of that year.
Concertmasters have a two year trial period before they are tenured in
the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and are admitted into the VPo, so if
all goes well, Ms. Danialova should become a member of the VPo in
September 2010.
The current 2.1% ratio for women in the VPo after 12 years is dismal, but the appointment of a
concertmistress in the Staatsoper might be a sign of progress.

Though the
Vienna Philharmonic has historically maintained gender and ethnic
uniformity among its members, they have allowed for outside influence
through guest conductors and soloists. They have found it beneficial to
consciously use these guests to rehabilitate the orchestra's public
image, while at the same time quietly denying rank and file membership
to women and "visible" racial minorities. This has been an
effective public relations device for resisting change, and fits with
sociological models that suggest that isocratic groups form controlled
relationships with outsiders to mutually enhance their image and status.
The employment of a woman concertmaster might be a continuation of this
strategy.

On
the other hand, the attitudes of some of the orchestra’s members are
slowly changing. And in general over the last 30 years, the
average representation of women in most other top German-speaking
orchestras has risen from less than 5% to almost 20%.[6]

The
Vienna Philharmonic has still not hired a visible member of a racial
minority. The orchestra has traditionally felt such individuals
would destroy the ensemble’s image of Austrian authenticity.[7]
This policy is directly mainly toward the many Asian musicians who study
at the University of Music in Vienna – often a quarter or more of the
student body.[8]

It
is still very difficult to obtain information about the Vienna
Philharmonic. Secrecy is strictly enforced among the members due
to the negative press caused by the ensemble’s employment practices.
Musicians who speak publically can face severe punishment[9].

It
is also problematic that feminist musicologists in the German-speaking
world write very little about the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonics’
employment practices. And what little has been written has not
been widely distributed. There are several complex reasons for
this. Among them, Germany and Austria have very authoritarian
histories that to this day inhibit some forms of social protest. The
societies are also somewhat less individualistic. Those who
protest against important national icons, like the Berlin and Vienna
Philharmonics, can face career problems in the music world, including
mobbing and ostracism. These orchestras are also used to represent
their countries abroad. Even some feminist musicologists strongly
resent that activism against these orchestras has taken place mostly in
the English-speaking world. The lack of participation by
German-speaking musicologists is unfortunate, because there are some who
could be very helpful with the IAWM’s efforts. When I contact
them here in Germany and Austria, I often meet not only with a lack of
cooperation, but sometimes even hostility. (The most notable
exception is Regina Himmelbauer who has been central to the IAWM’s
efforts.) The relative silence among the general German-speaking public,
and among German-speaking feminist musicologists, has allowed the Berlin
and Vienna Philharmonics’ discrimination against women to continue
into the 21st century. This is unfortunate, because
these institutions have a great deal of iconic power, both within their
countries and abroad. With three women members after 12 years, are
seeing progress, but it is unnecessarily slow.

<
http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at
> In the listing of musicians, those in asterisks have passed their
trial year at the Staatsoper, but have not completed the three year
tenure necessary to become official members of the Philharmonic.

[7]
William Osborne, “Symphony Orchestras and Artist-Prophets:
Cultural Isomorphism and the Allocation of Power In Music Leonardo
Music Journal (Vol. 9, 1999) M.I.T. Press.

[8]
The orchestra has two half-Asian members, but their family names are
German, and their appearance does not make their racial make-up
immediately apparent.

[9]
William Osborne, Tokenism and
Firings:The status of
women and people of color in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Vienna
Philharmonic ten years after it nominally ended its discriminatory
policies. Decebmer 12, 2006.